Dne Čt 16. července 2015 14:27:08, Mathias Homann napsal(a):
So how do you determine which software is "legally problematic"?
For example... in the USA there are several patents that prevent certain things to be included in linux distributions, but in germany software patents do not exist.
So the only way to technically do what you suggest would be to completely prevent the installation of software, except for packages that come from the official openSUSE repositories.
...then how would one install such things as SAP or oracle or any other commercial software?
There is huge difference between distribution and installation. So overall if you as customer download something from legal distributor (SAP) then you can install their software just peachy. But SUSE unless they have a deal with the vendor cant install such thing. In case of SAP we are partners so we can provide it and be perfectly sure they are not going to sue our collective asses to moon. OTOH the most popular thing is multimedia there you have to adhere to patent law of the most strict region you want to be in, in this case USA. So in order to include ie mp4 decoder you would have to have deal with mpegla and pay the royalties. Or user can 1) ignore the patents and violate them 2) pay the royalties and then add the special repo, that cant be by default in openSUSE. We even cant recommend such repo because it can be argued that the user will just go for 1 instead of 2 and thus we, as in SUSE, convinced them to commit crime. Also if someone adds patented stuff to our build infrastructure and we are notified of the fact, we have to act upon the claim and usually remove the software. HTH Tom